culture

Using Our Voice Overs to Make a Difference

October 13, 2017 by Rosi Amador Leave a Comment

The Amador family, Brian, Alisa, Sonia, and I, have always enjoyed doing work geared toward making the world a better place. That’s why we were thrilled to provide voice overs for both the English and Spanish versions of La Familia Verde, an environmentally-themed PSA campaign.

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers - The Green Family - La Familia Verde PSA Want to find out how to save money on your energy bills? Want to learn how to stay healthy in a changing climate? Meet the Familia Verde, The Green Family! Their enthusiasm for saving energy may seem a little exaggerated, but they’d love to be your guides to a green, healthy lifestyle.

On this project, we had the pleasure of working for the first time with ChavoBart Digital Media. They’re a media production and distribution company specializing in short-form environmental and educational content. ChavoBart created the delightful Familia Verde segments as part of a campaign sponsored by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Hear La Familia Verde in English:

Hear La Familia Verde in Spanish:

All in the Family

As a family of bilingual voiceover artists, we love being able to work together. This is especially true when we get to record meaningful content in both English and Spanish. We hope to be able to lend our voices to many more projects like this – projects that connect our skills with our values. Given the current tendency to ignore science and promote environmentally-damaging energy policies, it’s especially important that we do all we can to protect our planet.

One-Stop Voiceovers

As a family business, we pride ourselves on providing our clients with a one-stop shop for a wide range of voices and languages. Improving the voiceover experience for our clients is something we always strive for! Producers often need to search far and wide to cast their commercials or PSA’s. Not when they come to us! At Amador Bilingual Voiceovers, we can provide all the voices they need in one location. Let our avatars tell you all about it.

Our Voices in the Smithsonian’s NMAAHC Mobile Audio Tour App!

February 23, 2017 by Rosi Amador 2 Comments

Happy Black History Month!

In September of 2016, the Smithsonian Institution unveiled the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C., an important and overdue addition to the Smithsonian museum system. It’s the only national museum devoted entirely to African American culture, life, and history, and we’re proud to announce that our voices are featured in the Spanish version of the museum’s Audio tour app.

Established by an Act of Congress in 2003, the NMAAHC is an important contribution to the preservation of our national history, and an architectural wonder! As construction of the museum was underway, my family and I were honored to receive a request for our voices for the innovative NMAAHC interactive mobile audio tour app. I’ll never forget the excitement I felt when it was confirmed that we would be “the” voices of the app that brings this extraordinary museum to life. When I first became a full-time voiceover actor, one of my hopes was to record audio tours for significant national museums, so this truly is a dream come true.

Audio Tour App Expands Access to Exhibits

The history of African American innovation in the United States isn’t always adequately represented in the media. Now, thanks to the Spanish mobile app, the vast wealth of information at the museum is now accessible to Spanish-speaking visitors from all over the world. My husband Brian, my daughter Sonia, and I are proud to have lent our voices so that others can learn about the impact of African Americans on the history and culture of our nation. The Smithsonian continues to rely on us for updates for the app and I recently recorded some additions for the 2017 version of the app, so stay tuned to hear more.

You can download the app on your mobile devices or tablet by visiting this link and take a virtual tour even if you’re unable to get to the museum at this time.

We’re deeply grateful to Mary Ann Findlay and Patricia Musariri of Intrinzinc, for choosing our voices for this project and to Clearly Innovative, the designers of this amazingly interactive app that is one of a kind. We hope you enjoy the sample audio tours that we recorded for the app as much as we loved recording them.

Raising My Voice for International Day of Peace

September 21, 2015 by Rosi Amador 2 Comments

Happy International Day of Peace!
¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Paz!

Established in 1981 by the United Nations, www.internationaldayofpeace.org states that “International Day of Peace (‘Peace Day’) is observed around the world each year on the 21st of September as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.”

I’ve decided to celebrate the International Day of Peace today through this blog post highlighting some extraordinary peacemakers. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to join me, no matter where you are, by taking a moment to honor the day in your own way, whether it’s sitting in silent meditation, lighting a candle or doing a good deed for a stranger.

MY BIG DREAM: GIVING VOICE TO MY VALUES

As a solopreneur, independent voice actor and singer, one of the things I most value about my life’s work is the freedom to use my voice to communicate my beliefs and intentions. Whether singing with my husband and our Latin band, Sol y Canto, or recording voiceover projects in our studio, I cherish and seek out alignment between my work and my deepest beliefs whenever I can. Today I want to take the opportunity to recognize a few people and organizations that I believe are making a valuable contribution to world peace.

PEACEMAKERS BRIAN AND I DEEPLY ADMIRE

Pope Francis

This is a Pope who has made the centerpiece of his papacy to speak for the poor and victims of oppression. Brian and I are really happy to see the Catholic church get involved in trying to make the world a more just and peaceful place. ¡Qué viva el Papa Francis!

The Upstander Project & Coexist

Ever since I met her, I have deeply admired my longtime friend Mishy Lesser, who has dedicated her life to building peace. Her latest endeavor is the Upstander Project (UP). The story of the first truth and reconciliation commission to investigate Native American issues, it prepares teachers and their students to make “othering” socially unacceptable and to interrupt aggressive behavior in schools before it leads to violence. She played an instrumental role in Coexist, an extraordinary award-winning documentary about post-genocide Rwanda that fosters important conversations about how to promote forgiveness, compassion, and understanding. www.upstanderproject.org. I highly recommend it!

Mina’s List

Screenshot 2015-09-20 18.30.29 — Aloisea Inyumba, Former Member Parliament, Rwanda

EMPOWERING WOMEN’S POLITICAL LEADERS GLOBALLY

Our remarkable friend Tanya Henderson recently founded Mina’s List, which seeks to realize women’s equal and substantive representation in national governments around the world. Check out this amazing article from the Huffington Post, and you’ll be blown away. Or visit www.minaslist.org

World Fellowship

Where Social Justice Meets Nature

A gorgeous retreat center near Conway, New Hampshire, World Fellowship is a place to rest, play and learn from inspiring activists who are committed to opening up dialog about things that really matter. A magical spot on beautiful Whitton Pond, World Fellowship is near and dear to our hearts – Brian and I have been singing there one weekend nearly every summer since the late 80’s! Our daughter Alisa took her first steps on the lawn outside the main lodge, and this past August she took the step of doing her own concert there. www.worldfellowship.org

OUR GIFT FOR YOU! ~ UN REGALITO

¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Paz! Brian and I wish for peace globally and peace for you and yours! Here’s a gift of a song we recorded with our band, Sol y Canto in 2007 on our bilingual children’s CD, “El Doble de Amigos/Twice as Many Friends,” with a children’s chorus from our adopted city of Cambridge’s English-Spanish bilingual school, AMIGOS, by beloved folk singer Tom Paxton. We hope you enjoy it! Feel free to share it if so.

Bilingual Voice Actor Trapped in the Internet

September 3, 2015 by Brian Amador 4 Comments

B in bowl Help! I’ve fallen into the Internet and I can’t get out!

My wife and business partner Rosi will tell you I’m addicted to my devices. And much as I recoil from that accusation, I have to admit there’s a grain of truth to it. Maybe a big grain. Maybe that’s why I’ve resisted every new step into “connectedness”. I resisted getting a cell phone. I resisted getting a smart phone. I resisted texting. I resisted social media.

Until I didn’t.

It’s so easy for me to fall right through whatever screen I’m looking at, just like Alice into the looking glass, into a magical world where anything is possible, where mutually-exclusive absolutes can both be true, where you can “like” someone without liking them, and where people feel joyfully free to say disgusting, hateful things to each other that they would never say in person. It’s all so interesting!

Especially during our interminable election season, when we have around 54 people competing for America’s Biggest Demagogue. And because the outcome matters to me, because I care what happens to my country and to the world, I get sucked in, whirling around in a vortex of procrastination, and to what end? No matter how much I learn about politicians ignoring real problems, devising solutions to make-believe problems, and creating altogether new problems, there’s precious little I can do about it!

The problem for me is that all that temptation exists in a medium that we need to use to do business. The Internet is like a huge, open-air market. As a voice actor, I have to go to that market to connect to potential and actual clients, to contract jobs, and to deliver the goods. But hanging around all the entrances to the market are a bunch of ne’er-do-wells, sniffing glue, talking too loudly, making rude comments, and insisting I look at pictures of their pets. I’m not saying I suffer from ADD, but…Hey, look! a big truck just drove by!

I get distracted.

More than distracted. I get dismayed. I see the vitriol being spewed at immigrants, especially Hispanics, as has happened so many times before, and I can’t help but feel deeply disappointed that people are still falling for that stuff. Especially given that the people most vilified are often those who work the hardest.

Finally, a solution comes to me. The dog needs a walk, and I can’t walk him online! I put his leash on him and we go out into the real world. My head starts to clear immediately. I look around. No red-faced bloviators. No repuglicans, libtards or Mexican murderers and rapists anywhere to be seen. Just people. When I look at them, I don’t see my most negative prejudices. If we talk, we don’t scream at each other in capital letters.

When we get home, the dog’s happy, I’m relaxed, I’m no longer a voice actor trapped in the Internet, and I can focus on the task at hand. It’s ironic: I always knew the Internet was a great way of escaping from real life. What I didn’t realize is that real life is a great way of escaping from the Internet.

Merry Navidad! or How We Stopped Worrying And Found Our Own Way To Celebrate The Holidays

December 17, 2014 by Brian Amador 2 Comments

2002: Christmas with 6-year-old daughters. Does it get any better?

It’s that time of year again! Christmas trees. Bells ringing at shopping malls. Children sitting on Santa’s lap. Non-stop Christmas carols, from the classic to the bombastic. And of course, a relatively new annual tradition: the call to arms in the “WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS!” We’re told that if someone wishes you a “Happy Holiday,” it’s because they’re trying to kill Christmas. I always thought that whether someone wishes me Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays or season’s greetings, they’re wishing me well, and I appreciate it. But then again, I don’t have a full-time staff working tirelessly to find things for me to be mad about.

Maybe my laissez-Nöel attitude has to do with the way our family has come to celebrate Christmas; it’s bilingual, bicultural, and so idiosyncratic that we would never expect anyone else to celebrate the same way we do. Rosi is Jewish, and although my parents tried to raise me Christian, it didn’t really take. Still, Rosi’s Jewish-Argentine-Puerto Rican family did have a tree, celebrate Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) and share gifts, and Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. One of the things I like most about it is how it has always absorbed elements from different religious and secular traditions and synthesized them into a much more universal celebration of peace, hope, giving, and light in the darkness.

Here’s what we do to celebrate Christmas. Tree? Yes. Lights on, and in, the house? Absolutely, though usually not until all the neighbors have theirs up for a few weeks. (I make up for this by leaving mine up until Valentine’s day.) Gifts? Sure, but not to an extreme, and not to the point of stressing about it. Parties? Yes, we try to have one, complete with lots of food (including pozole, a New Mexican stew made with hominy, pork and chile) and everyone singing Spanish and Latin American carols. Religious observance? Not really, but we do have a ritual that means a lot to us. On Christmas Eve, we sit in a circle around a lit candle. Each family member takes a turn holding the candle and saying what has been important to him/her in the year ending, recognizing any friends or relatives to whom s/he would like to send loving or healing thoughts, and sharing hopes for the coming year. When we’ve all had a turn, each person opens one gift, leaving the rest for Christmas day. Why? Who knows? My family always did it when I was a kid, and coincidentally, Rosi’s family did, too. After all this is done, when we should all be snug in our beds, I always seem to be wrapping presents. Christmas day we finish unwrapping presents, drink coffee, eat, see friends, maybe see a movie – it’s kind of like an extra-special Saturday with no chores!

However you celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/your holiday of choice, may it bring you warmth, joy and relaxation in the company of loved ones. Merry Everything!